


twos a company

by ell (amywaited)



Category: Marvel
Genre: Cute, Fluff, Harley Keener Needs a Hug, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, but its really quick i promise, mostly a lot of comfort, pepper is fabulous like always, they just all need hugs, tony and pepper could be dating if u let them, tony is BADASS and i LOVE him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-09
Updated: 2019-02-09
Packaged: 2019-10-25 04:17:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17717888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amywaited/pseuds/ell
Summary: tony never planned for this. sometimes, coincidences turn out well. he's still got his fingers crossed





	twos a company

**Author's Note:**

> enjoy!

Tony had never planned to introduce Peter and Harley. 

They were from separate eras of ‘Tony Stark’. If someone made a Tony Stark Timeline, they’d exist on opposite ends of it. Peter and Harley were different, from different times in his life. 

They were probably as volatile as gunpowder and open flame, or some other weird science analogy. Tony would do anything to keep them apart from one another, because they could, and probably would, destroy the world together if they ever met.

Which is why, when he gets home and sees two brown heads of hair sitting on his couch and cackling, he screams and drops his mug and his stack of paperwork.

He cares more about the mug than the paperwork (like he was ever actually going to do the paperwork in the first place), but he cares more about the twin pairs of brown eyes staring at him from over the back of the couch.

“How was work?” Peter asks pleasantly, as if Tony’s worlds haven’t just collided and blown out of existence entirely.

Tony says, “Good, thanks,” and then he blinks and says, “What the fuck is happening here?”

Harley grins the same shiteating grin he had when he was, like, eight, and Tony last saw him. “My mom kicked me out, so I came here. And Peter was here, so I was like ‘Who are you?’ and he was like ‘Who are YOU?’ and I was like ‘Harley’ and he was like ‘Peter’ and so here we are.”

“Can we backtrack a sec?” Tony asks, crunching shards of china under his feet. “Your mom kicked you out, so you came here? From Tennessee?”

Harley shrugs. “Yeah.”

“And you didn’t see a problem with that?”

“No.”

“Jesus," Tony says, which kind of sums everything up, really. “Okay. Peter, you’re fine. Can someone call Pepper? Harley, not that I’m not glad to see you, but does anyone know you’re here?”

“No one cares that I’m here,” Harley says.

“That doesn’t answer my question,” Tony says. He’s feeling a bit overwhelmed, if he’s honest, which is probably perfectly normal, appropriate feelings for the current situation. 

“No one knows I’m here,” Harley says.

“Okay. Jesus,” Tony says again. “Jesus. We’re going to be having a long, long talk. Preferably with a million tequila shots and lots of scotch.”

Harley just grins. Tony’d be lying if he said he hadn’t missed the little bugger.

 

* * *

 

Pepper comes back, the perfect whirlwind that she is, and deposits a leather bag, two Louboutin heels, and a red lipstick on the dining table before saying anything. Then she applies the lipstick, fiddles with an earring, and says. “Come on, then. Tell me what’s going on.”

Tony says, “I don’t know.”

“My mom kicked me out,” Harley says, sounding way too cheerful given the context of the sentence, and with a grin way too wide. “So I came here. And Tony broke a mug. Can Peter and I go play Mario again?”

“No,” Tony says, dragging a hand over his face. It’s been ten minutes and he’s already even more tired than if he had run a marathon on two hours of sleep. 

Harley slumps into a seat. “Fine.”

“So what do you need me to do?” Pepper asks. “Adoption papers, temporary guardianship? What’s the plan here?”

“I have no idea,” Tony says. “Pep, help me.”

Pepper threads a beautifully manicured hand through Tony’s hair. “I’m trying. Alright. Harley, no one knows you’re here, right?”

“There’s no one left to tell,” Harley says, which kind of tears Tony’s heartstrings in two.

Pepper hums. “Okay.” She turns to address Peter, who is sitting unnervingly quietly at the head of the table. “Peter, can you head back to your aunt’s while we try to figure this out? You can come over tomorrow, instead.”

Peter nods, because he’s never been anything that isn’t perfect and Tony loves him so much, wow. “Sure thing, Ms Pepper. Do you want me to do anything?”

“That’s okay, thanks, sweetie,” Pepper says. “We’ll see you tomorrow, yeah? Happy’ll collect you from school.”

Tony snorts, because Happy won’t be very happy about that. “See you, squirt,” he says. “I’ll keep an eye out, okay?”

Peter knows what he means, because he taps his fingers against his palm like he’s shooting webs. “Okay. Bye, Mr Stark, bye Ms Pepper. Bye Harley!”

Harley waves, and then Peter’s gone, and the hammering in Tony’s head quietens slightly. It’s kind of funny how quickly things can go topsy turvy. Tony reckons the universe thinks it’s playing a rather cool joke on him right now, some kind of sick prank, and he’s just waiting for someone to go ‘SIKE!’ and walk out with a camera.

It never comes, no matter how hard he wishes it. 

Pepper taps a pen against the table. “Okay, then. Harley, it’d be really great if you told me everything about why and how you came here, and we’ll go from there.”

“Okay,” Harley says, and he launches off into this big fantastical story that’s probably more exaggeration than it is truth. Tony stands up to fix himself a double scotch, and also to send a note about being late to work tomorrow.

 

* * *

 

Somehow, in the following six months, Tony finds himself playing parent to Harley, and to Peter on every weekday until it gets to the point where Tony sees more of Peter than his own aunt does, which is kind of worrying but Peter doesn’t seem concerned.

Harley’s a permanent resident, Peter nearly is, so something was bound to go wrong at some point. Tony’s been waiting for the other shoe to drop since the second month, which is why he isn’t exactly surprised when he gets home and finds a smear of tacky blood where Harley should be.

The television is still on, playing the title screen for some videogame, and Peter’s phone is lying on the coffee table. Tony’s heart kind of goes ‘shit’ and ‘fuck’ and ‘what the fuck do I do, oh God, I never signed up for this, holy shit, Jesus.’

“JARVIS, suit,” he says, and “Play back all security tapes from the tower,” and, “Track Harley’s vitals now.”

JARVIS says. “I am unable to do that, sir.”

“What? Why?”

“I do not have access to Mr Keener’s vitals right now.”

“What the fuck do you mean you don’t have access? Yes, you do,” Tony says, because JARVIS does have access, and he knows this because he programmed it. “Access them, trace them.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that, sir,” JARVIS says, and Tony tries not to scream.

“Yes, you can,” he says desperately. “Fine. Power off, JARVIS. I’ll do it myself.”

Power off, JARVIS means he’ll turn on the necessary protocols, like security, and the sprinkler system, and do nothing else. Tony will probably regret it and feel really bad in about ten minutes time. Until then, he powers up the suit (thankfully, power off, JARVIS doesn’t extend to the suit), and dives out the window. Which he’ll probably also regret in about ten minutes time.

“Sir,” JARVIS says reproachfully.

“Until you start helping me again, you’re staying on low power,” Tony says.

“Apologies, sir,” JARVIS says, “but I really don’t have access to Mr Keener’s vitals, or the security tapes. I can attempt to locate Mr Parker. I suspect they will be together.”

As if Tony lost his two kids in the space of a day. Just his luck. “Yeah,” he bites out. “Do that.”

JARVIS doesn’t tell him off for his tone, which hurts more than it should, actually. Tony tries not to think about it. 

 

* * *

 

“Located Mr Parker,” JARVIS says, in the middle of Tony’s seventh loop-the-loop in a row. It shocks him out of it, and he drops 500 odd feet before righting himself again.

“You did?”

“Yes,” JARVIS says. “Programming route now.”

“Is he alive? Is Harley with him?” Tony asks.

“I would assume so,” JARVIS says, “But I cannot be sure. Please do not get your hopes up, sir. And please, for the life of me, don’t do anything reckless.”

“Me? Reckless?” Tony scoffs. “I would never.”

JARVIS sounds weary when he says, “Of course not, sir.”

Tony doesn’t reply. He follows the directions JARVIS calculates and he tries not to worry too much.

 

* * *

 

It’s pretty much the lamest hostage situation Tony’s ever seen, and he’s seen a lot of hostage situations. Probably too many for any one person, really. 

It’s all stereotypical, and easily anticipated. Thick skinheads standing outside the doors, ones who don’t know their left from right. Easy enough to dispose of. Inside is more difficult, because they actually have guns and the Iron Man army isn’t exactly conspicuous, so Tony decides to leave it on the roof, because no one ever checks the roof anyway.

He knows enough hand to hand combat to get him through, and once he finds Peter, he’ll have better odds. Harley knows how to throw a punch, and he’s the least squeamish person Tony knows, so he’ll be fine too. They’ll be fine. Tony’ll get them all out of this.

The only downside of leaving the suit on the roof is he doesn’t have JARVIS anymore, so he commits the blueprint map to memory and relies on instinct to guide him through the rabbit warren. If the map JARVIS got was right, Peter should be tied up in the room on his left and…

He is. Good. Well, not good, but it’s better than anywhere else he could have been. Tony busies himself knocking all of the guards out and stabbing them more times than necessary before fiddling with the ropes holding Peter down.

Rope is honestly a bit disappointing, and Peter’ll probably be hugely insulted when he becomes more coherent.

“Hey, kid,” Tony whispers, holding Peter’s head in his hands. “How you doing?”

“Huh-? Where are we?” Peter slurs. His eyes look fuzzy, and there’s an impressive bruise on the right side of his forehead. 

“You got kidnapped, stupid,” Tony says. “I’m here to rescue you. Can you fight? We still need to get Harley.”

Peter shakes his head slightly. “I can fight, I think. My head hurts.”

Tony prods the bruise on it. “Yeah, no kidding. You look like you tried to fight an anvil and lost.”

Peter groans.

“It’s cool, though. The ladies love a bruise,” Tony teases. “Come on. Up you get, bud. We have to rescue your brother now.”

“He’ll get himself out,” Peter mumbles. “I want to go home,” and Tony scoffs.

“Yeah, me too. But we can’t just leave him here, can we? That’s bad karma, and Pepper made me promise to stay away from bad karma.”

Peter blows a raspberry and tries to stand up on his own. “Fine. I’ll be okay in a few minutes.”

“Get them spider juices flowing, kid,” Tony says. “Stay behind me, okay? Don’t engage with anyone. If they see you, they’ll probably try and get you down again, so be on high alert.”

“This ain’t my first rodeo,” Peter says in a horrible approximation of a southern drawl. Then he notices the ropes. “Hey, did they have me tied up with  _ rope _ ?”

He sounds disgusted. Tony chuckles. “Sure did.”

“How rude,” Peter sniffs. 

“I know, kid,” Tony says. “Come on. High alert, remember?”

“I know,” Peter says. “Are we going or what?”

 

* * *

 

It doesn’t take long to reach where Harley’s being held (Peter is disgusted to find out that Harley has been restrained with Actual Metal Bars, to which Tony tries not to laugh and says ‘Torture isn’t a competition’), what with Peter’s extra special senses, and stuff. He saves them from being shot a total of seven times, a number he doesn’t hesitate to crow in Tony’s ear.

He’ll probably hold it over him for the rest of forever, which is something Tony isn’t looking forward to. Secretly, though, he’s just glad he has Peter back in one piece. Not that he’d ever actually tell Peter that, because Peter would most definitely abuse it.

Harley is a lot groggier then Peter is (‘Because he’s human,’ Peter says matter of factly), and his head lolls over onto Tony’s shoulder. His eyes aren’t open, and his feet aren’t moving, but his heart is pounding which is better than it not pounding so Tony isn’t complaining.

He says, “Any chance you can take Harley up to the roof and wait up there while I sort these guys out?”

Peter grimaces but nods, because he’s perked up considerably since Tony found him. “Sure. Why the roof?”

“The armour is up there,” Tony says. Peter’s eyes light up. “No touching.”

Peter huffs. “Fine. Killjoy.”

“Thanks,” Tony says. “Don’t get hurt, okay? If you need me, yell.”

“Yelling would draw more attention to us though.”

“Then yell quietly,” Tony says. “We’ll be home soon, okay?”

 

* * *

 

Harley wakes up once they get back to the tower. He slurs every other word and he has a bruise that rivals Peter’s, and he’s far too excited at the prospect of being kidnapped than he should be.

If Tony didn’t know better, he’d be worried about them. As it is, he flops down on the couch beside Harley and says, “If you ever get kidnapped again, I will disown you.”

Harley snorts and then moans, holding his head. “No, you won’t.”

Tony dabs an icepack on Harley’s bruise. “Sure, I won’t. I’m glad you two are okay.”

“I am too,” Harley murmurs. “As fun as it was, it was kinda scary too.”

“I’d be worried if you didn’t think it was scary,” Tony says. “Still sure you want to be my kid? This really might happen again.”

“I’m sure,” Harley says, sleepily.

“We’ll have to put some protocols in place for this situation,” Tony says.

Harley hums. “Yeah. Did you ever figure out what was wrong with JARVIS?”

“Huh,” Tony says. “No, I didn’t. It’s okay. We’ll look at it later. You should go to sleep, kid. Healing boys need their beauty sleep.”

“I’m already beautiful,” Harley whispers. “Thanks, dad.”

Tony pretends he doesn’t hear. He probably wasn’t supposed to, anyway. Instead, he watches Harley fall asleep on his shoulder. 

He’s just glad to have his boys back. 

**Author's Note:**

> i said id write more of these boys and i did i love them so much i love them SO much  
> i kinda wanna make this into a series (probably will) and i kind of want to get tony into a relationship (probably will) and i kind of want to develop more on the peter&harley friendship (definitely will) so stick around, i guess
> 
> anyway, ive done a loooot of writing recently, so expect some of that floating around here.
> 
> thanks for reading! let me know what you think, and hopefully ill see you in the next one? much love, ell xx


End file.
